Mission to Zyxx

MISSION TO ZYXX is an improvised science fiction podcast following a team of ambassadors as they attempt to establish diplomatic relations with planets in the remote and chaotic ZYXX QUADRANT of the TREMILLION SECTOR. They work for the benevolent and harmonious FEDERATED ALLIANCE, which has recently defeated the evil GALACTIC MONARCHY. The Federated Alliance is definitely less evil.

I make the show alongside six other co-creators: Jeremy Bent, Alden Ford, Allie Kokesh, Shane O’Connell, Winston Noel and Moujan Zolfaghari. Performances are improvised and then edited and sound designed to become sitcom episodes for your ears. Each episode features a special guest comedian playing a character with the unlucky fate of receiving the team of ambassadors on his or her home planet. Two seasons are complete. Season 3 is coming soon. Very jucking fun to make this show!

Thank You, Robot

Improviser

2007-Present

I'm one fifth of the improv comedy group Thank You, Robot. We met studying at the Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC. Cast includes Jeremy Bent, Matt Little, Christopher Scott and John Robert Wilson. We are apparently the longest running independent improv team in New York City.

In our long-running show Science Exclamation Point!, scientists give mini-lectures that inspire two improv sets. It happens the first Saturday of every month at Caveat.

We've performed in various comedy festivals, written for and appeared on TV shows and movies, and do not know the proper time at which to leave parties. Our spirit animal is Chris Gethard.

Cast Party

Creator / Producer / Host

A podcast festival beamed to movie theaters in the US, Canada and Australia, and later released by Vimeo On Demand and on Netflix - featuring stage performances by Radiolab, Invisibilia, Reply All, The Truth, Lauren Lapkus and Bobby Moynihan. Plus Cocoon Central Dance Team, horn quartet The Westerlies, original comedy videos, and cameos by Ira Glass and Sarah Koenig. I created and produced the show with BY Experience, Inc. It was pretty insane.

Medal of Victory

I'm a co-producer of the feature film Medal of Victory, written and directed by Joshua Moise, about two AWOL soldiers who are mistaken for war heroes and become embroiled in a crooked small town mayoral election. The cast includes Will Blomker, Mason Hill and Anna Martemucci, with veteran character actors Richard Riehle (Office Space, Glory) and Jack O'Connell (The Sopranos, Mad Men, Louie, Inside Llewen Davis). Filmed on location in Wisconsin.

I was an on-set co-producer, played the role of reporter Clyde Gee, shot second unit footage, behind the scenes stills and video, and edited news footage that appears throughout the film.

Medal of Victory is a Warehouse District Films production. Previously, I co-edited Warehouse short films The Captain and Me (2007) and Treasury Men in Action (2009, also directed by Moise).

Naughty or Nice

I play an elf named Spark in this audio movie, which aired on NPR's All Things Considered on Christmas Day 2014. I co-wrote it with Jonathan Mitchell, who directed. It was also released as an episode of Jonathan's podcast The Truth.

HOW TO LISTEN TO A PODCAST with Ira and Mary

Director, Cinematographer, Editor

Promotional video for the podcast Serial, starring Ira Glass and his 86-year-old friend from the dog park, Mary Ahearn. Aired on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon when Ira Glass was a guest.

This American Life: Live at BAM

Director/Editor

2014

I directed the video of This American Life's live performance at Brooklyn Academy of Music on June 7, 2014, featuring a musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights), stories by Mike Birbiglia (Sleepwalk With Me) and Sasheer Zamata (Saturday Night Live), music by Stephin Merritt (The Magnetic Fields), dance by Monica Bill Barnes & Co, and lots more.

It was a six camera shoot, which I live cut then re-edited with Ben Cohen. Produced by Ben Cohen and Ben Katz. Filmed with four Sony F5/F55 cameras with cinema lenses, and two Panasonic remote PTZs. Distributed by This American Life and VHX.

Stranger: Bernie Worrell on Earth

Co-Producer/Cinematographer

2005

Documentary film about the genius keyboardist of Parliament-Funkadelic and Talking Heads. Directed by Philip Di Fiore. Featuring interviews with George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, David Byrne, Mos Def, Les Claypool and Warren Haynes. Shows at Jazz Fest 2003 comprise most of the concert footage in the movie. Took four years to make.

Premiered at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival. Won audience awards at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece. Released on DVD and online by MVD.

Barbara Leather

Director/Editor/Cinematographer

2004

Short 16mm documentary film about East Village NYC leatherworker Barbara Shaum, who was the first woman served in McSorley's Ale House - the last bar in New York to serve women. Shot on hand-wound Bolex. Edited on Steenbeck flatbed.

Told

Producer/Host

2008-2012

For four years, I hosted a monthly storytelling show called Told. Storytellers performed on a theme, with reactive-connective interludes performed by someone with a personal or professional relationship to the theme. For example, a tarot reader for The Crystal Ball, or a defense attorney for I Fought The Law. The show was filmed as a TV pilot but not picked up as a series. Told was produced by Heidi Grumelot and presented by Horse Trade Theater Group.

Audio

Mission to Zyxx - I'm one of six co-creators of this improvised sci-fi comedy podcast. I play Junior Missions Operations Manager Nermut Bundaloy, and am an editor and producer on the series. 2017-2018.

Possible Side Effects - I play a not-so-attentive doctor in this episode of The Truth, written by Casper Kelly ("Too Many Cooks") and starring Adam Wade. 2017.

Naughty or Nice - I play an elf named Spark in this Christmas episode of the podcast The Truth. Written with Jonathan Mitchell, who directed. Commissioned by NPR's All Things Considered, where it aired on Christmas Day 2014.

I shot the documentary and interview footage for this Miramax video - a behind the scenes look at the film Medal of Victory, featuring director Joshua Moise and producer/actor Will Blomker. Edited by Moise.

Some of the most important pieces of artwork ever created by human hands, made after 12 years of studying America's most influential in-flight catalogue. Included in the permanent collections of zero museums, and the temporary collection of my house.

Sketch comedy video timed to the 2013 Oscars. Dougie Ellroy has landed a special guest for his barely-watched YouTube show about movies: his nemesis, New York Times film critic Vance Inwood. Starring Jeremy Bent and David Bluvband from The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Filmed with three Canon 6D DSLR cameras.

Before starting our 7th anniversary show, my improv comedy group decided to pay respects to the members who died the previous year. Spoiler: we all died, in connected and successively dumber ways. Possum cameo. Stills shot on Canon 6D DSLR. Edited and animated in Adobe Premiere.

Short film directed by Joshua Moise, about impostor EPA workers who attempt to steal a fortune from an elderly recluse, and get more than they bargained for. Co-edited with Moise. Distributed by Hulu. Scroll down to watch the entire film (15 mins).